Gareth Lewis: Can Eluned Morgan unite Welsh Labour?

Eluned Morgan is expected to run unopposed for the Welsh Labour leadership

Will the unity ticket unify Welsh Labour?

It's the question being asked of the party after their horrible 2024 so far.

Bringing the Senedd group back together now looks certain to fall on Eluned Morgan's shoulders.

How time flies in politics.

Eight months ago the health secretary ruled herself out of the race to succeed Mark Drakeford as first minister, to concentrate on the health service instead.

But needs must.

And there is a sense of pragmatism to what is going on now.

Labour MSs know that things cannot continue as they are, with supporters of Vaughan Gething and supporters of Jeremy Miles having been briefing against each other for months.

The atmosphere in the Labour group had been described as toxic.

But nothing concentrates minds like an election.

The polls for Labour ahead of the next Senedd election in less than two years time are not looking good.

So they need to move on.

There seems to be an enormous amount of party goodwill towards Ms Morgan - something Vaughan Gething did not have

There is a belief - expressed in a blog by Gething-critic Lee Waters - that a broader discussion is needed for that to happen.

But other Labour MSs are more optimistic.

The differences and the anger - they say - were never about policy, and more than one has suggested that Ms Morgan would be a pragmatic leader and FM.

She will face the problem of every leader - who to reward with a cabinet job and who to disappoint - but she does appear to be starting with an enormous amount of goodwill.

That is something Mr Gething did not have.

And if she does manage to convince her own party, how about us?

No leadership contest equals no manifesto, so we do not know exactly what Ms Morgan stands for.

She has promised to "re-double" efforts to bring down NHS waiting lists, but opposition parties will hammer her record as Labour's health secretary when those lists have hit record levels.

This contest appears to have been won without the need for a fight.

She has persuaded the vast majority of her colleagues to unite in public behind her.

But the real fight will come in 2026 - persuading the electorate that she and her party deserve to stay in power.